Tiger Woods has revealed he is just happy to still be in contention after the first round of the PGA Championship at the Bellerive Country Club in Missouri.
The veteran endured a tricky round, but showed nerve in the closing holes to hold onto critical pars and walked up to the clubhouse even par.
Speaking after his round, the 42-year-old revealed his satisfaction at being in relatively close touch with the leader Gary Woodland six shots under-par after an impressive opening round.
Woods said:
It [his strong finish] kept me in the golf tournament,
I could have easily gone the other way, being 3 over through two. A lot of things could happen. Not a lot of them were positive, but I hung in there and turned it around. This afternoon the guys are going to face a little more wind than we did this morning. Just happy to be within five right now.
The round may not have gone as the Californian envisioned, but the resolve to adapt and salvage a round is something the 14-time major champion has in abundance.
Got off to a terrible start and just tried to hang in there and just kind of eat away at it and see if I could somehow get to the turn at maybe 1-over par or something like that,
I made the turn at 2 (over), but got a couple on the back nine and just hung in there.
Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy also fired in a level par round to stay in touch with the leaders.
